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RAIL-AIRPOINTS IN FRANCE ARE P47 THUNDERBOLT TARGETS

Fighter-Bombers Continue Hammering as Weather Grounds Heavies

From the May 27, 1944 Edition of Stars and Stripes

Thunderbolt fighter-bombers of the Ninth Air Force yesterday lashed Luftwaffe airfields and rail targets in northern France as adverse weather grounded U.S. heavies and gave battered Europe a brief respite from the almost continuous Allied pre-invasion pounding by the Forts and Libs.

As the fighter-bombers escorted by other Ninth Air Force P47 Thunderbolt fighters swept over France, Vichy Radio reported raids on Lyons, Chambrix and St. Etienne, in southern France, indicating that Italian-based aircraft might be continuing the offensive from the south against rail centers.

Meanwhile, both Allied and neutral reports told of heavy damage inflicted by the latest American heavy-bomber raids on the rail junctions upon which Germany depends for the rapid movement of troops and supplies to possible invasion points.

Photographs made during and after Eighth Air Force attacks Thursday revealed major damage to railway yards at Blainville, Serregueines, Thionville, Mulhouse, Belford, Metz and Charleroi, in France, and Liege and Brussels, in Belgium.

Eye-witness reports reaching Zurich yesterday said that in the last Allied raid on Kassel, called by some travelers the most devastated city in Germany, a direct hit was scored on a store of 5,000 tons of dynamite. The resulting blast was said to have caused a hurricane which was felt for miles.

Another dispatch from Zurich reported that the U.S. attack on Belford, rail junction on the main Paris-Gotthard line, had interrupted all rail traffic and caused extensive damage. A dense yellow cloud of fire was said to be still hanging over the vicinity of the railroad station early yesterday.